Today, Broken Bells is the band, and After The Disco is the album. I know nothing of either other than the disc was announced along side some short films of some sort with the same name.
Pictured: A naked woman and a lack of research.
I've started my night with a glass of Jim Beam on the rocks, but for the blog, I will be cleaning out my fridge:
This is the arsenal of a poor man.
So with left over alcohol at my side, on to the review!
Album:
Alcohol:
"A Perfect World" brings us into the album with some lowkey electronics. Nintendo sounding synth provide some movement before the drums kick in. Another synth plays a nice melody setting up the verse. The song while not too powerful as an opener has nice movement. Not bad. Pleasant is a word I might use. Solid chorus hooks. The song itself is a little... Dry? Good, just somewhat uninteresting. If it weren't for the chorus parts, I may be falling asleep as I write this. Decent tune, just... Kinda blah. Oh, there is a neat little guitar solo there. Toward the back a little, but I like the arrangement of it... As the song fades... Nope. Keys bring us into another part of the song... Oh, that was cool. Alright redemption. It took awhile to get there, but the song did well, and didn't manage to actually loose me in the process.
The title track comes in keeping the slow disco feel. Like the previous track it is blah but saved by the chorus. Hooky, and I really like the falsetto in there. The music is kind of losing me. The vocals are the only thing really striving to hold my attention. The bassline is cool, but dear god, can it play--oh, the song is over.
Acoustic guitar and a really interesting kazoo sound bring us into "Leave It Alone". This song really slows things down, but in a nice and groovy way. I like that choral refrain. The music here has some cool movement, and I like the little guitar solo, but groove needs a rhythm section that can change up, and I'm just not feeling a lot of that right now. This song is cool, but missing a lot.
Moving on, "The Changing Lights" opens with a driving-ish synth that moves along as the drums comes in and drops off rather abruptly to give way to vocals. Other than the drop off. This song has a rather promising start. I really like the vocal melody and growth. Keys sweel as the chorus comes in. Dropping back down. Wow. The switch from beer to cider was interesting. Meh... I'm getting bored here. The song is cool, but it's, like, an better extention of everything that was alreaddy happening on this disc, and now it's over.
"Control" is another groovy track, and again, it's the vocals that shine. Everythingelse is just there... Groovin'... In a rather dry way. Cool farty guitar(or maybe synth) solo. I'm gonna call this the Valium spiked version of Night At The Roxbury... Nice horns... Ew... Fade out endigg.
Coming in like an indie lullaby is "Lazy Wondergul". This would bee a good title track. The songs thus far haven't necessarily been bad, but I wouldn't say good either. Lazy wonderfuyl sounds like a good discription of the disc as a whole to this point. The band does it's bestwork in melody and movement, but there are glaring underutilization of the rhythm section and overall compositon.
"Medicine" comes in with complete uncertainty if the previous track has eneded. More of the same. I'me losing faith in this disc fast than sobriety... Think of any popular 80s flick. You know the pop track from it? Yeah, that one. Well, make it a little more bland, and you have any song on this disc. Cool ending to this one, but thats about all that sets it apart.
And staying painfully with in the formula is "No Matter What You're told". Read above for a discription of this track.
"The Angel And The Fool" comes in deceptively awesomely. Another really cool groove and crazy reverb on a cool vocal line. At the risk of putting them to shame, the open reminds me of what would happen if "When The Levee Breaks" was boring...
Finally, the closing track, "The Remains of Rock & Roll". And I hope this song is no indication of what the remain of rock and rool are too be..It's like rock and rool with none of the authentic groove or umphy fun. Sad. TRhats what this song is. The whole albusm really. Thus far, I've counted none high points and all of the low points... That being said... Any of these tracks could shine on a good album as a pace slower, but put together, it's like trudging through pretended soul and feeling. Oh... Thats the end...
Final Thoughts:
First bad disc of 2014! Seriously, every attempt on this disc is just that, an attempt. Devoid of the necessary feeling of the grooves they set up. Suffice to say, you will not find this ever in my collection, and I'm sad to hav ever stumbled on to this band (Glad I didn't waste my good Jim Beam on them).
Toying with the idea of A&A getting it's own facebook page, but I'm thinking it may be dumb and pointless? Let me know.
-Badhorse
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